Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the man of the week, something which may give him an air of importance, but this time it is for all the wrong reasons. First indignity comes with President Erdoğan having American Pastor Andrew Brunson arrested on charges of his being a “national security risk” for unspecified involvement in “terrorism” after his having resided in Turkey for the last twenty years plus doing Heaven’s work. This arrest came about three months after the July 15, 2016, coup and soon after initial attempts and other threats failed in having former Erdoğan friend, the man who assisted placing Erdoğan in power, now the presumed coup organizer and Muslim cleric with thousands of religious followers, Fethullah Gulen extradited. Now Turkey’s President Erdoğan has made, kind of informal, formal offer, to trade holy man for holy man. The Turkish elite power structure has made it rather obvious that once they have Fethullah Gulen that his life will have become uninsurable, as the only formality left will be the date of his execution.

Forgetting the obvious sham charges made against Pastor Brunson and the sickening stench of Erdoğan’s offer, what about the coup charges against Fethullah Gulen. There were a number of items troubling about the coup which we saw as we observed the unfurling of events. One of the most unexplainable was the fact that a pilot presumably with the coup was in his fighter and followed the president’s passenger executive jet for forty-five minutes without shooting a single shot or rocket to try and down the unescorted craft despite knowing that President Erdoğan was traveling on the craft. He never made any demand for the plane carrying the target of the coup to land at an airbase controlled by the coup organizers or take any action other than to notify the coup command that he was following the aircraft with the President confirmed to be onboard. The coup did not close down broadcast facilities, did not take over command and control facilities leaving them for the military to all but immediately put down the coup attempt. Deaths were higher after the coupe ended when rounding up and arresting thousands of people from government and military from lists which were reportedly prepared weeks before the coup attempt. Everything about this coup smelled of an amateurish set-up by the government under the orders of Erdoğan in order to arrest and remove political opposition before an upcoming election, or in this case, to smooth the path for a Constitutional Referendum which presented the President, which is Erdoğan, with unprecedented powers and permits him a path with an office from which he would become a virtual dictator. The coup removed virtually all opposition to the Constitutional changes.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Cleric Fethullah Gulen is in his mid-seventies, partially disabled, resides in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania in the area of the Pocono Mountains north-northwest of Philadelphia and a well known retirement area. Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania is not exactly the best place from which to run a coup in Turkey. First thing is the distance from Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania to Ankara, Turkey, the capital city, is 5,258 miles. Second, Gulen was initially one of the people who allied with Erdoğan initially putting him initially into power in 2002 or 2003 and never challenged him or had his party opposing Erdoğan’s rule. Where Erdoğan came to the conclusion that it was necessary to eliminate Gulen, a retired cleric with no political ambitions that are known, is beyond reason or explanation. Taking Erdoğan’s desires for Gulen’s death as a given, then the arrest of American Pastor Andrew Brunson was simply a matter of being the person available in the wrong place at an inconvenient time. How long this trade has been in the offering is unknown. What is known is that the entire offer for an exchange of an innocent American Pastor for Gulen is an offensive offer while knowing that Erdoğan intends to have Gulen tried, convicted and executed all nice and neat and filled with legal appearance all in a public forum with witnesses and formal charges all already scripted. But Erdoğan’s perfidy does not end with Gulen, and nor does the world’s.

Let us look at the recent declaration by the Iraqi Kurdish population. In a referendum where 72% of the population voted and 92% voted to declare independence which computes to 66.24% of the total population even if everyone who did not bother to vote would have voted against, a highly unlikely scenario. So, it is not improbable or an exaggeration to claim that over two-thirds of Kurds in Iraq would prefer living in their own nation. Such an idea should not be difficult, as they had been promised the reconstituting of Kurdistan after World War I for their assisting the allies against their Ottoman enemies. The valor shown by the Kurds against the Ottoman-Turks is part of the reason for the enmity between the two peoples. When the Sykes-Picot Treaty was enacted and the nations drawn up after World War I and colonized instead of by the Ottomans who had ruled the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for over six-hundred years and by the Caliphate of the Arabs for five hundred years before that, simply put, there were many, many tribes and peoples who after being colonized, conquered by the Romans and the Greeks before that and earlier by Persia and previous to that Babylon who were really hoping their nations would return as the Europeans had promised. The Arabs also had dreams of having their Caliphate returned, as they had believed it had been usurped by the Ottomans. These tribes were cheated by the colonization by the Europeans and then cheated when the Europeans retreated and in virtually every case, they returned rule over to the Arabs ignoring the claims of the tribal indigenous peoples. Amongst the tribes were the Jewish People, Kurdish People, Berber Tribes, Druze Tribes, Bedouins, Nubians, Arameans, Phoenician-Carthaginians, Egyptians and numerous other tribes. Of these peoples, a few were promised their own lands amongst which are the Jews who reestablished their state of Israel on May 15, 1948, and the Kurds who were amongst those disenfranchised by the Sykes-Picot Treaty.

So far, the referendum by the Kurdish was opposed by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, most of the European states and the United States State Department. The reason Iraq is against the referendum is obvious as these Kurds who were responsible for the referendum are all from the Autonomous Kurdish Region of Iraq. Their autonomous region has been pretty much ignored by the Iraqi government which spent little to no funds in support of either the Kurdish region, the Sunni central region or even to assist and save the Yazidi when they were trapped by the Islamic State (ISIS at that time) who had transmitted videos of their torture of many Yazidis and worse to their young women and the sole people in the world who assisted these Yazidi tribespeople were the Kurdish Peshmerga Militias who did a herculean effort to channel the trapped people to safety and have cared for these people as well as taking in many Sunni women and children who also were escaping from the Islamic State which conquered large areas of central Iraq. The Iraqi central government barely rules anywhere in Iraq outside the Shiite southern region and have only projected force into the central area since the Kurdish Peshmerga Militias initially stopped the Islamic State and pushed them back opening the way for the push to retake Mosul where the Kurdish forces were critical in the effort. Now that they have held this historic referendum, though having declared that they have not planned any action, are being threatened and demanded by the Iraq government to close all airports and surrender their borders to Iraqi forces. Basically, the Iraq government is demanding the Kurds simply surrender the lands and freedoms they have had, defended, protected and liberated from Islamic State regions all because they had a nonbinding referendum to measure the desires of their own people and had made no effort to enact or change their status. This attempt to cow them and make them knuckle under to a show of force and demands that they now forget their autonomy which they have enjoyed for the last decade plus, it just may end up backfiring forcing the Kurdish to decide to take the necessary steps to declare their independence.

Threats from Turkish President Erdoğan has also threatened the Kurds with closing their borders, ending the lucrative flow of oil from the Mosul oil fields through Turkey, and other moves to deter and intimidate the Kurds in efforts to dissuade the Kurdish Autonomous Region from declaring their independence. There have been rumored threats in Turkey against their own Kurdish population should the Iraqi Kurdish region declare their independence from Iraq. Iran also has a Kurdish population plus there is a somewhat autonomous region of Kurds in Syria which, with some assistance from their Iraqi brothers and sisters, stopped the Islamic State drive towards the Turkish border. Somewhat less known, was that much of the Turkish efforts which were claimed to be against the Islamic State actually targeted the Kurdish regions of northeastern Syria. This reached a point of serious challenge to the Kurdish efforts against the Islamic State that President Trump had to threaten President Erdoğan if he continued to refuse to end his offensive against the Kurdish forces. That proved to be sufficient to bring to an end these attacks but one could imagine Turkey, especially with Erdoğan as their President, attacking not only his Kurdish population and those in Syria but even entering Iraq and attacking the Kurdish there as well, something that there were reports of Turkey crossing into Iraq to target Kurdish forces.

So, have there been any bright spots in the Kurdish story of their overwhelming voting for independence? Well, after having to refute the charges by Turkish President Erdoğan that the Israeli Mossad interfered in the Kurdish referendum, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated Israel supports the establishment of a Kurdish state. Iraq’s Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani thanked the Israeli leader while repeating that the Kurds were not considering independence at this time. The remainder of the world has been either quiet or softly outspoken against the Kurdish referendum. The saddest thing was the United States refusing to back the Kurdish who has an operating democracy with many of the same freedoms prized by the people of the United States and share outlooks and efforts concerning the Islamic State and anti-terror operations in Syria and Iraq. We have stated before and proudly state once again that we favor the establishment of the nation of Kurdistan to include all the Kurdish regions willing to live under a democratic state based on individual rights, individual freedoms and an open capitalist economic model. The Iraqi Kurdish Autonomous Region has ruled such a region and respected the freedom of their people and shown great humanity which was most on display in their heroic actions in assisting the Yazidis who were trapped by the Islamic State and faced complete annihilation had nobody come to their aid. While the world rubbed their hands while doing little, the Kurdish Autonomous Region’s Peshmerga Militias that took steps and forced a wedge into the front lines opening an escape route for the Yazidis and then took in thousands of these victims of the Islamic State and has cared for them since. Many Yazidis are now residing within the Kurdish Autonomous Region enjoying their freedoms and likely also were taking part in the referendum. The Kurds are worthy of their own nation and the entirety of the Kurdish people may some day reestablish their homelands. In the meantime, should the Kurdish establish their independence they will face many of the challenges which Israel has faced in the past and to this day but can be assured that they will have a friend in Israel. We wish the Kurdish People the best and success in whatever their efforts in the future.

Whenever one mentions the state of violence which exists in the situation which has come to be known as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the story almost always goes to the propaganda media story of the overwhelming power of Israel against the weak and defenseless Palestinians stone throwers. There are a number of discrepancies with reality already conveyed in that sentence which trying to explain to people is an uphill battle where whatever you say gets you accused of being a Zionist stooge or simply a liar. Fortunately I don’t care about the names and will actually correct them and explain I am not a Zionist stooge, I’m the real deal, a proud Zionist, and then I give them the whole story. For the sake of brevity and to not bore everyone I’ll give the short version. Somewhere in my youth I realized I wanted to go live in Israel, to return home which is how every Zionist I have ever known describes the yearning. At age nine I made a pair of promises to myself, first to take care of my parents and be a dutiful, caring and loving son and second to make Aliyah and live the remainder of my life in Israel. My father inquired what my plans were once I had retired after a serious injury placed me on disability and I explain the two promises. He released me from the first explaining I was not getting any younger and encouraged me to make Aliyah and so I have. The one quirk is I do not remember sharing either of my plans with anyone around me but friends from as far back as junior high school have claimed I had mentioned, often casually as kids often do about their future plans, that I would eventually live in Israel. Most of them classified that little comment as a youthful enthusiasm and not an actual goal, my most heartfelt dream. Now happily living my dream I also have gained a closer look at the situation which I was not totally aware of before coming to Israel because the media has not reported honestly on much of what is happening and what I see has me worried for the safety and lives of the Palestinians and angry that the media conceals so much of the realities in the Arab-Israeli conflict which would be the correct terminology to use instead of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. So, what has been concealed and omitted from the story. Let’s look into that part.

Whenever there is a conflict which escalates to the point that the Israeli police, security personnel and especially IDF soldiers (Israeli Defense Forces) are forced to respond with riot control or even more drastic responses the media is filled with stories with pictures explaining how the Israelis overreacted and used disproportional force against mere stone throwing youths. When the terminology ‘youths’ is employed, youths would be better defined as Palestinians from age twelve through age forty-five and when confronting Israeli law enforcement or IDF the younger participants are always placed to the fore while the older Palestinians remain in the rear where they often employ slings or even firearms and of late roman candle fireworks and Molotov cocktails and other improvised weaponry. The media reporting on these confrontations are often fed their stories or write them following the script which has accompanied the pictures for decades now to the point that most confrontations are not reported at all and only those which result in a violent response, especially if there are wounded, or worse, killed Palestinians do these stories make the news. This paints a disturbing image for the Israelis attempting to keep the peace and protect innocents from both sides. The pictures are more often than not provided by Arabist sympathizers with a story to sell and are often misleading or outright fabrications. This kind of reporting was revealed by a reporter for the BBC we covered with link to source video report in our story World Enters Save Hamas from Israeli Annihilation Mode which gives an accounting of just a small sliver of the lies and errors given in social media which is also indicative of many mainstream media coverages as they rely heavily on hearsay and social media reports. They receive many of their videos and still pictures from what they refer to as trusted sources who are stringers often also employed by the Palestinian propaganda department who aids them in their efforts including giving them the lead to scheduled provocations planned in advance. Often these provocations have as much as two hours of preparatory work where the pictures of youths throwing rocks are videoed and pictures taken while they throw stones to miss the cameramen but at empty areas and well before they confront the IDF. The pictures which show the Palestinian youths throwing rocks and it appears that the camera personnel have to be shooting their footage from the front of the stone throwers such that you believe they are embedded with the Israelis, this never made you think and consider the absurdity of such pictures. In such a situation the camera personnel would not be calmly shooting video from within the IDF ranks as if such a situation presented itself the IDF would escort the photographers to their rear to protect them and allow them to shoot from behind the soldiers, not from amongst or in front of them as that would threaten the photographers safety. When it is made to appear like the camera personnel are within the ranks of IDF soldiers it is often Palestinians dressed in IDF uniforms. For more examples of these types of events simply search for Pallywood online and even with the videos there take care and view them with a touch of cynicism.

The truths which are simply not told are that there is an escalating Intifada happening in Israel right now and has been escalating for the past few years. Many Israelis refer to these actions as the ‘Silent Intifada’ because even the Israeli media is downplaying the realities. For the past six weeks the situation on the Temple Mount had become unbearable for Jews wishing to visit the holiest site in all of Judaism and an actual hell for the Police who are assaulted daily with barely a day going by where the police on the Temple Mount are injured requiring medical aid on sight or, if less fortunate, taken for further treatment at an Israeli hospital. The rock throwing at vehicles often done from ambush positions or thrown from cars driven in the opposite direction which is queued when to start accelerating when the intended target passes a point approaching the waiting attack vehicle on the road’s ambush point. These ambush points change but there are some which are regularly used on major roadways which many are required to drive as there is no other route they can use which does not add hours to their commute. The rocks used are often the size of crochet balls and can be as large as cinderblocks and bricks and have similar effect when striking a windshield. There have been a number of seriously wounded drivers and passengers and some fatalities including many children in both categories. These ambush points are well planned and upon the arrival of authorities the Palestinians conducting the ambush melt back into the nearby Arab neighborhoods where they are protected from arrest by the rest of the Palestinians in the neighborhoods. Many do this as they believe their youths are just having harmless fun and if they should not protect them then they would likely face the retribution of the terrorist groups who often arranged these attacks and have been known to summarily execute those they believe have assisted the Israelis in any manner.

Another side to these attacks is they are often paid for and planned, including training the Palestinian youths where necessary, by anarchists and extreme leftists from across Europe. These are well trained provocateurs with much experience in using rioting to assault soldiers and law enforcement personnel and the best uses of media especially in editing film to produce videos of the law enforcement in the worst possible light. These provocateurs arrive often in teams which have their own media personnel who can film confrontations and are excellent editors to produce the most damning short video which then they place on-line and then have their own people start tweeting it and then enforcing their initial tweet with retweets guaranteeing it trending and going viral. The fact these videos also reinforce the storyline of the mean, nasty, criminal Israeli forces beating down innocent Palestinians who have done nothing to provoke such responses only serves for it to be believed and thus shared. Israeli law enforcement and IDF are not permitted to take videos themselves and place anything on social media and as these events are preplanned on the Palestinians side, the only video taken is often by Palestinian sympathizers or European instigators well versed in media manipulations. There do exist some videos which show actual footage of entire provocations which were captured on surveillance cameras but the picture quality is poor and the confrontations are planned such that the actual events are difficult to discern accurately beyond anything but the Palestinian assaulted a checkpoint or patrol and this eventually led to a response by the Israelis who had come under attack. What is seldom if ever uploaded to the Internet are the attempted confrontations where the Israeli soldiers or law enforcement were assaulted and provoked but because there was no real or perceived threat to life or limb they simply did not respond. This is the result of the majority of these confrontations and is so not newsworthy as in choosing news stories the old adage still applies, “If it bleeds, it leads.” You will always see the man bites dog story and not so much dog bites man despite the fact that dog bites man story is the norm and probably outnumbers the man bites dog stories by a ratio near incalculable.

This leads to the most uncovered story. Throughout Israel where approximately one out of five citizens are Arabs there is no strife and Jews and Arabs including Muslims live side-by-side in peace and harmony. When I walk around Nahariya I often pass by Muslims dressed traditionally and there is no animosity and no acts to harm each other and we shop with merchants from both cultures giving the religious or race of the merchants little or no mind. Such events are the norm around almost all of Israel. Further, the buildings which are built, whenever there is not an actual announced building freeze or a stealth freeze where the tenders are given, bids made and recognized and every legal and administrative hurdle passed and completed, the final permission to start construction has been withheld by the political leadership of Israel very likely in response and due to pressures from European governments, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union. Had these apartments been constructed the reality which is ignored is that Arab Israelis including those living in and originating in East Jerusalem would be able to purchase and live in these buildings. There is no restricted housing for the most part throughout Israel. Yes, there exist Kibbutzim and religious neighborhoods where one need apply to live in these areas but that is due to the economic partnership members of these communities share when it comes to rents and other necessities as these communal neighborhoods also care for their less well-off within the structure of the neighborhood. These are just as often Jewish neighborhoods as they are Arab neighborhoods and within Israel there are completely Arab towns and a number of cities with Arab mayors which have mixed Arab and Jewish citizens. That these mixed neighborhoods live happily and in peace almost universally does not exactly make for exciting news, but they exist just the same. One must remember that the news covers the exceptions, the most drastic and outside of the ordinary as that defines news. News agencies which attempted to write ‘good news stories’ exclusively quickly failed to survive as nobody bought their products regularly because such stories are not that exciting. Who cares for the most part what the lady on the corner does to grow such nice petunias, where is the visceral gut wrenching real news, that sells newspapers and makes newscasts worth watching.

Finally we get to the shaky situation for the future which might be closer than many think. There have been some actions threatened to be taken by the Palestinian leadership which could signal something neither side desires but was the eventual outcome due to the indoctrinations and incitements which are integral in Palestinian society. These indoctrinations and instigations are woven into their textbooks, soaked throughout their media, stressed even in preschools, reinforced through social media and visual media such as television, radio, movies and other modes to the point of inundating the Palestinian population with a visceral and red hot hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. This indoctrination has reached such a fevered pitch and so soaked throughout the society that the violence it demands has very likely gotten beyond their ability to control and is now escalating independent of any controls or manipulation. The leadership began this latest Intifada as they had every time before to coincide with negotiations such that they might force Israeli concessions simply to make gains in the negotiations bringing them to a satisfactory end for the time being and the violence would be slowed and eventually a calm with a controllable level of violence would settle in. There does not appear to be an off switch or the usual one had malfunctioned and there is no way for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority to dampen down the riots and violence as they have taken on a life of their own. The daily rioting on the Temple Mount is no longer under Palestinian Authority control and is being financed and pushed by Hamas who desires instability in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and throughout the Palestinian Authority regions as an inside line to toppling Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah and PLO leadership replacing it with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two terrorist groups which more and more appear to have merged, or at least cooperate to the point of being complimentary. With the rioting, rock attacks, fire bombings, assaults, attempted stabbings, and lately shooting between Arab neighborhoods and Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem; there appears to be a serious problem which the Palestinian Authority is losing control. This is all most likely the plan by Hamas to unseat the current leadership and also to coopt with the unity government thus completely replacing the Palestinian Authority with Hamas leaders. This was the plan revealed initially by the Israeli Intelligence, the Shin Bet, who, with IDF assistance, arrested the core leadership and organizers of a Hamas coup attempt near the end of August as the ceasefire was being negotiated. The order for the coup to be executed presumably came from Khaled Mashaal, Hamas political leader living in exile. Had the Israelis not prevented the coup the plan was for the violence in Judea and Samaria to escalate completely out of control and while Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership was attempting to get a handle on the violence for Hamas planted units to take control of the seats of power eliminating the current leadership of the Palestinian Authority and thus gain complete control over the unity government. This would have permitted Hamas to attack Israel from the advantageous Judean Hills which overlook the heart of Israel including the entirety of the Tel Aviv greater metropolitan area, Ben Gurion International Airport, and over seventy percent of Israeli production, population, infrastructure, power generation and utilities. Having Hamas fire rockets from the Judean Hills would paralyze Israel and be completely ruinous to the Israeli economic health. The only response which Israel could take would be a full-on military assault and reconquest of all of Judea and Samaria. After such, and with the entirety of the Palestinian Authority leadership replaced, there would not existing any authority which would present even the slightest willingness for sane coexistence and there would be no avenue for peace or even an end to the violence outside of eradication of the resistance no matter the amount of force required.

This exact scenario may be what we are witnessing being unveiled before our eyes and if this proves valid, then there is serious trouble brewing which will force a resolution to the Palestinian statehood question. This may be what is behind the Palestinian Authority decision to utilize their alter ego, the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) which was the originating group from which the Palestinian Authority was eventually formed with a side step creating Fatah as the political side of the PLO, and submit a petition requesting a binding resolution from the Security Council at the United Nations to enforce Israeli surrender of the entirety of Judea and Samaria, they will refer to this as the West Bank in their petition, by the end of this October or by no later than November 2016. This may be being sought as a last ditch attempt to regain control over the forces rioting and going so far as to shoot into Jewish neighborhoods. Just for clarification, there has yet to be return fire from the Jewish neighborhoods and if such should occur, then the escalations would lead into that unthinkable area, a place where Hamas may be currently pushing everything. The coup plan may not have been completely prevented by the arrests of the leadership and may be being carried out by Hamas interests right now. Such a situation if proving to be beyond Palestinian Authority abilities to control then the Israeli retaking and imposing martial law in all of Judea and Samaria might prove to be the only alternative. The currently escalating confrontations do not provide for a sustainable situation for Israel and security and order would need to be restored by whatever means are required. If subduing the violence is not something that the Palestinian Security Force, the force trained by the United States by Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, then Israel would have little choice but to suppress the violence using the might of the IDF to whatever levels proved necessary. After such a resolution, the two state solution will have been killed, it currently is on life support and pulling the plug and letting it die has begun to be considered a viable option, and the alternate plan would be proposed and presented as the only solution other than Israeli rule. That alternative is for all defense and security for the Palestinian areas to be provided by Israel while internal policing may be performed by an autonomous Palestinian entity in their areas in Judea and Samaria, probably limited to Areas A and B while Area C would remain Israeli as was the initial plan at the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, and the Palestinian could continue self-rule as they see fit but without arms on a level of a militarily viable force. This would be the best of all options should the Palestinians insist on imposing their own solution outside of negotiations and calling on outside forces to impose their demands on Israel. That would be tantamount to their declaring war, a war they could not win. This may be the end result should these escalations continue to their inevitable conclusion which would be Hamas gaining power over the entirety of the Palestinian semiautonomous areas both in Gaza as they have currently from which they attack Israel approximately every two years, and in Judea and Samaria where they could threaten much more of Israel with their rockets as from the Judean Hills their accuracy would be greatly improved and they could almost not miss as they would be launching into the most densely urban areas in all of Israel. As stated previously, such a situation would be taken as a declaration of war by whatever Palestinians were holding the positions of leadership, and such a war will only end one way.

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